Boat washed ashore at Rameswaram had nothing to do with Sea Tigers - SLN

With reference to our news story titled ‘Sea Tigers may have entered Tamil Nadu’ based on an Express News Service report published in this page on Monday, January 26, 2009, the Sri Lanka Navy informs us that it was a fishing boat owned by Hameed Sultan Masaheer of Kalpitiya which had left for fishing on January 23 and has no connection with Sea Tigers.

SLN further says that “It had not been used by LTTE cadres to flee to Tamil Nadu.

“No SLN vessel had detected a suspicious boat movement during the period in question. Sri Lanka Navy maintains continuous naval surveillance and patrolling in the North-Western, Northern and Eastern seas,” it further added. After an investigation regarding the boat in question and the reported incident the SLN has provided us with the following information:

“The boat in question bears the registration number WMN 109 and belongs to Hameed Sultan Masaheer of Mandalakuda, Kalpitiya who owns nine dinghies and has been engaged in catching sea leeches since 2002.

The boat had been fitted with a 25 Horse Power Suzuki outboard motor bearing engine number ENO 151304. The upper part of the boat had been painted white while its lower part had been painted green. The boat had the following items on board: Oxygen cylinders - 8 Nos, GPS - 1 No., Mobile phones - 2 Nos., Kerosene oil - 60 litres, Anchor - 1 No., Fisheries permits issued by SLN, Personal National Identity Cards of the crew.

The boat carrying the fisheries permit issued by the Sri Lanka Navy had left for fishing on the 23rd January 2009 around 1600 hours with A. M. Salman Faris (NIC No. 722540778 V) of Ramadnagar, 4th Mile Post, Puttalam, M. N. Abdul Kadar (NIC 632792590 V) of Ramadnagar, 4th Mile Post, Puttalam and Thaiyuf Ajir of Mohamadiyapuram, Mandalakuda, Puttalam, on board.

Two of the fishing crew namely, A. M. Salman Faris and M. N. Abdul Kadar, had been rescued around 2200 hrs while stranded in the sea by another fishing vessel bearing the registration number WMN 227 with three crew members on board, namely Aman Mohamad Sajahan (NIC No. 750152490V) of Mandalakudawa, Kalpitiya, M. S. Mohamad Mihirasana (NIC No. 600073672V) of Kollankuttigama, Ganewalpola and M. I. Mohamad Risli (NIC No. 910020233V) of Mandalakuda, Kalpitiya. The crew states that they had taken the two stranded persons on board having spotted torch beams emanating from the sea and reached Uchchimuni having stayed at sea till dawn. They had phoned the owner of the boat and handed the rescued persons to him when he came in another boat in search of the missing boat and crew.

According to the statements given by the two rescued fishermen, the third persons namely, Thaiyuf Ajir had absconded with the boat leaving them stranded in the sea. Thaiyuf Ajir has a history of having fled with a boat to India after discarding the fishing gear overboard and returning minus the boat after having been freed from Indian custody a month later.

Hence, the boat washed ashore, in fact, is the boat bearing the registration number WMN 109 owned by Hameed Sultan Masaheer of Mandalakuda, Kalpitiya, which had left for fishing on the 23rd January 2009. Thus, it has no connection with LTTE sea tigers and therefore, it had not been used by LTTE cadres to flee to Tamil Nadu.

No SLN vessel had detected a suspicious boat movement during the period in question. Sri Lanka Navy maintains continuous naval surveillance and patrolling in the North-Western, Northern and Eastern seas in order to cut off the escape of LTTE cadres by sea and to prevent the smuggling of war-like materials by LTTE terrorists.”